OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-08 Red Hat 23 Comments

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 1 has been released. This is the first Red Hat Enterprise Linux release that includes Xen based open source virtualization technology. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 1 release contains virtualization on the i386 and x86_64 architectures as well as a technology preview for IA64. More info here and here.

Ubuntu Server Edition (6.06) Review

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-08 Ubuntu 29 Comments

"The release of Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake), back in June, brought not only a new desktop system to the Linux world, but also a server system with long-term commercial support. It has one key advantage over similar offerings from Redhat and Novell; the flexibility of the Debian dpkg packaging system." Read the review here.

What’s The World’s Fastest Browser?

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-08 Benchmarks 61 Comments

"Oh sure, the following tests aren't as scientific as putting all the browsers in a ring and seeing which one is left standing after the fight, but it's close." More here.

Theory on Particle Spin Brings Quantum Computing Closer

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-08 Geek stuff 4 Comments

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have devised a potentially groundbreaking theory demonstrating how to control the spin of particles without using superconducting magnets - a development that could advance the field of spintronics and bring scientists a step closer to quantum computing.

UNIX Error Reporting in the Standard C Library

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-08 General Development 12 Comments

Proper error detection and recovery is often ignored by UNIX developers. The lack of exceptions from the C language and the rudimentary error mechanisms from the standard C library certainly contribute to this. This article familiarizes you with the UNIX standard error reporting mechanism, the errno global variable. You'll also learn about a couple of associated global variables ( sys_nerr and sys_errlist) and the standard functions that help you report errors to the user and (hopefully) encourages you to report and handle errors in a user-friendly way.

FreeDOS 9 Review

Guest post by Marti van Lin 2006-09-07 OS News 14 Comments

The FreeDOS kernel originally produced by Pat Villani and what we consider today to be the full featured operating system "FreeDOS" by Jim Hall and is currently maintained by the FreeDOS team, including many third party contributors. It's first goal was to create a full featured MS DOS clone but it has extended beyond this with features like "out of the box" networking support.

Windows Vista May Be Delayed in Europe

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-07 Windows 58 Comments

Windows Vista may not ship in the European Union at the same time that it is released in the United States as a result of possible issues with European competition law, Microsoft acknowledged on Sept. 7. The problem from Microsoft's perspective is that the EU has been slow in letting the software giant know exactly what it needs in order for Windows Vista to ship in Europe.

Submitted by thebluesgnr 2006-09-07 SuSE, openSUSE 28 Comments

openSUSE 10.2 Alpha4 has been released. It features GNOME 2.15.92 with Novell's Slab menu, KDE with the Kickoff menu, Xorg 7.1, kernel 2.6.18rc5, lots of improvements on the package management (if it was as bad as SLED 10's, they'd better), and other improvements.

Itanium Gets Back on the Horse

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-07 Intel 3 Comments

"In July, Intel released the dual-core Itanium 2 processor, formerly code-named Montecito, and announced that the new chip is capable of double the performance of its predecessor while consuming 20 percent less electrical power. eWEEK Labs' tests of a server based on the newest Itanium 2 platform show promise but also limitations."

New Archos WiFi-Enabled PMP Runs Linux

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-07 Wireless 19 Comments

LinuxDevices is reporting that a new WiFi-enabled portable A/V player from Archos (604-Wifi) runs an embedded Linux OS and sports the Opera web browser. It is thought that this is the most advanced PMP in the market today, although Bluetooth A2DP/AVRCP support and FM radio are missing.

Submitted by kamiko 2006-09-07 Windows 20 Comments

Ars is taking a look at the new Vista audio enhancements, like system wide loudness equalization, diferent volume level adjustments for different audio sources, reverse bass management, speaker fill, room correction, speaker phantoming, HRTF, and microphone arrays. Combined together with Vista's new audio engine architecture, audiophiles should find plenty to rejoice about.

Submitted by Eugenia Loli 2006-09-07 Unix 20 Comments

"Want to run best of breed apps under both Windows and Unix? Eric Hall tells you about an option for doing this: Microsoft's Posix subsystem. It lets Unix apps think they are using regular Unix, but they are actually using Windows instead."

New Acorn Reveals PC Laptop Website

Submitted by teigetje 2006-09-07 RISC OS 22 Comments

"The new Acorn Computers Limited have sneaked the first details of their range of notebooks onto their website. The new Nottingham-based company will be assembling notebooks locally using current Intel and AMD x86 mobile processors. The notebooks are said to be designed with close co-operation from nVidia, ATi and Microsoft." Ok, so they have no relationship whatsoever with the original Acorn machines, but seriously, now you can outshine Apple's glowing logo with a much cooler one.

Building Modules Without Full Kernel Sources

Submitted by anonymous 2006-09-07 Linux 7 Comments

"To be frank you do not need a full source tree in order to just compile or build module against the running kernel; i.e. an exploded source tree is not required to build kernel drivers or modules. Developers and power users will benefit immensely from the instructions outlined below."

A Look at Syllable 0.6.1

Guest post by Daniel W. Steinbrook 2006-09-07 Syllable, AtheOS 22 Comments

Syllable 0.6.1 is the latest incarnation of the operating system that "will be a reliable and easy-to-use GPLed operating system for the home and small office user" as their website states. That's quite a noble cause most other alternative operating systems never claim to be able to market to non-technical audience one day. Even getting Syllable up and running is pretty easy: fully-working VMWare images and a LiveCD images are provided for free download. Apparently, Danes are the primary downloader of the Syllable LiveCD, given the primary language in which the LiveCD page is by default.

Windows Vista RC1 Available for Public Download

Eugenia Loli 2006-09-07 Windows 55 Comments

Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 is now available for download. If you previously registered for the Windows Vista Beta 2 Customer Preview Program 2 and received a product key (PID), that key will work for the Windows Vista RC1 release as well. You need not re-register. Update: A review of the RC1 version say that Vista is not ready.

GNOME 2.16 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-06 Gnome 59 Comments

The GNOME team has released version 2.16 of its desktop environment. The release notes detail many improvements in this new version. Ars reviews this new release (ok, a pre-release), and concludes: "Overall, I think that GNOME 2.16 is a good release with some nice additions, but I don't think it has any killer features that justify an immediate upgrade. I'm going to wait for the official Ubuntu Edgy release in October rather than upgrading early. Of the new features included in GNOME 2.16, I think that the vertical view mode for Evolution is probably the one that will benefit me the most." Update: On a related note, Monodevelop 0.12 is out, with lots of changes in it.

Vista: ‘Not Yet Ready for Prime Time’

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-06 Windows 64 Comments

Two negative reviews of Vista RC1. First off, CRN says: "Microsoft is making its first Vista release candidate and pricing information more broadly available to partners and consumers this week. Solution providers who have seen it say it's not yet ready for prime time." Our favourite ~~Microsoft~~ ~~Apple~~ Microsoft zealot Paul Thurrot posted the 2nd part of his RC1 review: "Overall, Windows Vista is a stunning bit of work. But the devil is in the details, as they say, and Microsoft has never been very good at consistency and that final bit of polish that separates something competent from something wonderful." In the meantime, one of Vista's lead developers has left Microsoft.

‘Hail the Konqueror’

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-06 KDE 91 Comments

"Many KDE users tend to take the Konqueror Web browser for granted, but that's a mistake. Konqueror may not be able to replace Firefox as a Web browser for every site, but it does a lot more than just simple browsing."

IBM Wins Bid to Build Hybrid Supercomputer

Thom Holwerda 2006-09-06 IBM 7 Comments

IBM has won a bid to build a supercomputer called Roadrunner that will include not just conventional Opteron chips but also the Cell processor used in the Sony PlayStation. The supercomputer, for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, will be the world's fastest machine and is designed to sustain a performance level of a 'petaflop', or 1 quadrillion calculations per second, said US Senator Pete Domenici earlier this year. I'd like to play Solitaire on that.